News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-11-10
CAPTURED BY JAPANESE GIRLS.
American officers Who Have Taken
Wives in the Mikado's Land.
from the st. Louis Globe-Democrat.

YOKOHAMA, Japan. Chaplain Beng
less cremation in Japanese style does
not compare as n heated subject of dis
cussion with the announcement that
Lieut.. Foulke is soon to be married in
Japanese style. Lieut.. Foulke has
been rather the pride of his brother
officers for the past three years out here,
because of the abilities he displayed as
a diplomat and landsman during his
services as naval attache of the United
States Legation in Corea. For part
of the time he was acting Minister, and
as such outranked his Admiral, and
when he visited man-of-war was en-
titled to more guns in the salute. He
learned to write and speak Corean, and
became q personal friend of the King,
and in official and social intercourse
with the sovereign could dispense with
an interpreter. He was not pleased with
Chinas bullying attitude toward poor
little Corea, and the Chinese Minister at
Seoul never rested until he forced the
Corean Foreign Office to ask the United
States Government to recall him. The
King protested, but he was helpless,
and obedient to the request, that our
Government knew came from China,
and not from the Coreans at all, Mr..
Foulke was summarily ordered to the
nearest man-of-war for duty. To be
ousted at the dictation of the Chinese,
and to have his own Government fail to
stand by him, made the young man
feel aggrieved, and for time he talked
of resigning from the navy. When
Lieut. Foulke was in Japan ten years
ago he became much attached to a
japanese girl at Nagasaki, whose father
kept one of the prettiest of the many
charming tea houses on those green
hillsides His study of the japanese
language was aided by her, and for the
years that he was away he wrote to her
in Japanese characters and she answer
ed in English script There is more
romance, too, about dangerous illness
through which she once nursed him.
She is spoken of as a woman of great
intelligence, beauty and fascination, and
a strong and admirable character. She
is unusual among japanese women, and
although now past thirty, still charms
and attracts. Lieut. Foullze is a quiet,
shy man, of scholarly tastes, caring
little for formal society. Word has
been brought to Yokohama that he is at
Osaka, where his Japanese fancee now
lives, and that he will soon marry and
take his wife directly to America, where
he has been ordered to stand his ex-
animation for promotion in the service.
Once before an officer of the American
navy has been married to Japanese
woman, and he still resides here, never
having gone home. 1t happened some |
fifteen years ago, when the young Anne
rican Lieutenant obtained two years
leave of absence for the purpose of Civ
ing instruction in a japanese engineer
ing college. When his time was up the
deep and strange fascination of this
country was upon him, and rather than
break the spell and leave these ideal
surroundings and the quiet poetic life,
he resigned from the navy and ceased |
all communication with his family. He
was not happy with his wife, and he
wrote her that she might get divorce
or do as she pleased. He attached him
self as nominal teacher in the family of |
a rich Kioto noble, this giving him the
right to live in a city in the interior;
and taking Japanese wife, adopting
japanese dress, and making himself en-
tirely one with the natives, he quite |
ceased to be considered a foreigner at |
all. Some of his old shipmates return
ing to this station have tried their best |
to hunt up the exile, but failed, as he
assumed japanese name with Japanese
dress, and there is no way to trace him
or get at him. There is tradition that |
he is often seen riding about the streets
of Kioto, and one man claims to have
seen him at Yaamis Hotel there one
night The delightful mystery about
the man increases with different YER
siOns of the reasons for exile. One is
that he dropped out of his old world
solely to escape from his wife, all other
means having failed The other side is
that it was his romantic love for his
Japanese wife that caused him to sacri-
flee home, country, family, friends, his
profession and ambition, for the dreamy,
contemplative life that he
leads in the abandoned capitol of old
Japan. His American wife, who lives
in Philadelphia, obtained divorce a
few years ago, and it is rumored that
the mysterious masquerader has resum-
ed communication with some of his
relatives and will come out of his seclu-
sion now that part of the necessity is
past.